An investigation into the possible arousal of psychological reactance as a consequence of interest inventory feedback PublicDeposited

Descriptions

The purpose of this research was to determine whether feedback
from vocational interest inventories leads to the arousal of psychological
reactance. The data for the study was collected from 80 male
and female subjects who were first year students at Oregon State University
enrolled in Psychology 111, Personal Development.
The experimental design utilized consisted of having subjects
scan a list of 39 occupational titles and then indicate on a pretest
instrument three titles which they perceived as interesting, three
perceived as uninteresting, and three toward which they felt indifferent,
They were also asked to rate their interest in these nine occupations
on a seven point semantic differential scale. Subjects were
subsequently administered a fictitious vocational interest inventory
which purported to measure the similarity between their interests and
those of individuals successfully employed in various occupations.
Subjects who were designated as experimentals received
manipulated inventory feedback which indicated that their measured
interests were either very similar to, very dissimilar to, or average
in comparison to those of professionals employed in the nine occupations
rated on the pretest instrument. Control subjects received no
interest inventory feedback. Finally, a posttest was administered to
all of the subjects in the study. This instrument called for the subjects
to rerate their interest in the nine occupational titles previously
indicated on the pretest.
Psychological reactance was ascertained by noting whether
changes in pretest-posttest ratings between the experimental and
control groups occurred in theoretically predicted directions. The
t-test of significance, along with the analysis of variance, were utilized
in order to determine whether changes in rated interest were
significant at the . 05 and . 01 levels.
The results of the study indicated that subjects who received
manipulated vocational interest inventory feedback did not express
psychological reactance. The study did reveal, however, a tendency
on the part of subjects to adjust their rated occupational interest in
accordance with the type of manipulated feedback received. Feedback
which indicated that the subjects' interests were very similar to, or
average in comparison to those of employed professionals in a specific
occupation resulted in subjects slightly raising their interest
in that vocation. Feedback which indicated that the subjects' interests were dissimilar to those of employed professionals produced mixed
results. For occupations initially described as "interesting," this
feedback resulted in subjects significantly decreasing their rated
interest. For occupations initially described as "indifferent" or
"uninteresting" however, this type of feedback produced a slight
increase in rated interest. The implications of these findings were
discussed relative to reactance theory and vocational guidance.